Megliola: It was a wonderful season for Red Sox Nation in so many ways

By Lenny Megliola/Local Columnist

Sunday

Nov 4, 2018 at 4:26 AM

We’re all about the numbers when it comes to sports. Numbers after a game tell us who won and lost. Years remind us of great successes and disappointments. The Patriots won their first Super Bowl in 2001. The Red Sox went 86 years without winning a World Series. Ted Williams hit .406 in 1941. No one has hit .400 since.

Now, we have to consider 108, an otherwise undistinguished number only known for separating 107 from 109. One hundred and eight is the number of games the Red Sox won this season, the most in franchise history. It was a wonderful summer for Red Sox Nation, but there was no guarantee they’d have success in October, a month seemingly loaded with curses for the local nine.

In 2001 the Seattle Mariners won 116 games but didn’t make it to the World Series. Success in June and July is nice; winning in October is a totally different animal. No one knew that better than long-standing, often suffering Red Sox fans.

So as the regular-season runaway Red Sox grinded into fall ball, more apprehension than confidence prevailed. The 108 wins meant nothing unless …

This time they delivered. This time they were the bullies from start to finish. This time, no matter how good their ancient rival Yankees, the defending World Champ Astros or the home-run-happy Dodgers were, they were no match for the Red Sox.

Teams win championships with great players. It makes sense, although great players need a supporting cast to finish the title quest, which made this Red Sox team so unique.

It had its stars. Mookie Betts and JD Martinez were so good that from mid-season on they were, in most people’s minds, running one-two in the running for American League Most Valuable Player. Xander Bogaerts and Andrew Benintendi played at a high level. But a baseball team is comprised of 25 players, and first-year manager Alex Cora was intent on using them all, even in situations fraught with failure

Cora reminded his less-than-starry players to be ready on the bench. You might hear your named called. He gave all of them a sense that the manager had faith in them.

From the first day of spring training Cora fostered a sense that this team would be a band of brothers, no easy trick in any professional sport when athletes have high opinions of themselves and their paychecks support the notion.

Cora molded a team in every regard. It wasn’t a 25 cabs for 25 players split. Instead, it was hire the biggest stretch limo. All climb in, the big-ticket players and the role players.

If Betts and Martinez were the hitting stars and Chris Sale and David Price the aces on the mound, the lasting image of the Red Sox season had to include the contributions, the big-moment imprints concocted by Brock Holt, Rafael Devers, Eduardo Nunez, Jackie Bradley Jr., then Steve Pearce was added to the team mid-summer. No one saw him as the future MVP of the World Series, just another helping hand.

The Red Sox bullpen was maligned most of the summer. Worse, Craig Kimbrel was no longer a shutdown closer. The fear prevailed that the bullpen would keep the Red Sox from winning it all.

Yet, when the stakes were at the highest, Joe Kelly, Matt Barnes, and Ryan Brasier pitched their hearts out. Then Price, Sale and Rick Porcello volunteered to come out of the ‘pen too. What the heck, they had all winter to rest their precious arms.

Then general manager Dave Dombrowski pulled Nathan Eovaldi out of a hat. Eovaldi was not a person of interest to Boston fans. A pitcher, you say. Lefty or righty? Starter or reliever? Eovaldi did both. Honorably, never more so than in the epic 18-inning game 3 when he pitched six innings in relief, which was the only game the Red Sox lost in the series.

Two games later Boston squashed the Dodgers’ dream and Nathan Eovaldi had signed his name on the list of memorable Red Sox October heroes. He, like Pearce, had only been around a couple months. Down the road you may not remember what number they wore, but you won’t forget what they contributed to the 2018 season.

It was that kind of season for the Red Sox. To the last pitch. The 108 wins were more than a hint of things to come.